Bolstering integrity and transparency to foil transnational crime in Indonesia

Semarang (Indonesia), 29 September 2010 - On 9 August 2010, the Indonesian National Police, the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation and UNODC organized a workshop with the title
"Specialized Management of Professional Standards, Accountability and Integrity". The workshop was attended by 47 senior officers from the Indonesian National Police and inaugurated by Police Commissioner General Nanan Soekarna.

Commissioner General Nanan Soekarna, who spoke at the start of the event, saw the workshop as a means to "equip officers with knowledge of international best practices on leadership skills and teach them the strategies required to improve and strengthen the level of professionalism within the police force".

The workshop was the first of its kind and the overall aim was to improve best practice standards amongst the police force. The value of leadership was underscored by a police officer representing Sumbawa Island: "Leaders must set an example in integrity and transparency. The rest of the force will automatically follow. The approach must be top-down."

The professional standards workshop followed on the heels of an event on managing financial crime that was held in July and that was attended by 48 law enforcement officers. The Attorney General's Office, the Corruption Eradication Commission, the Indonesia Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center and the Indonesian Police Force were all represented.

Narendra Jatna, a member of the Task Force for Special Crimes at the Attorney General's Office, explained: "Corruption in Indonesia is much more complex today than it was in the 1950s and this training will therefore cover more recent developments in the area of financial crime".

Recent developments in financial crime include a new focus on the recovery of stolen assets, an area previously neglected. As Don Craill, Federal Agent and Director of the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation, said: "It has taken many years to get to the point where people are not only thinking about arresting people because they have committed a crime but they are planning the seizure of assets before the arrest."

In an interview with UNODC, Mr. Wahyu Sri Bintoro of the Indonesian National Police said that "there has been a vast increase in the numbers of financial crimes committed in Indonesia but knowledge is not yet adequate". He also emphasized that "if law enforcement officers are not supported by officials who clearly understand the financial aspects, of course cases will remain unsolved."

According to Mark Shaw, who is in charge of the Integrated Programming and Oversight Branch at UNODC headquarters in Vienna, "for UNODC, combating transnational organized crime is a priority and we are extremely happy to be the lead agency in this three-year project through which we hope to deliver cutting-edge knowledge to Indonesian law enforcement officers."